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About this movie

Genres:
Drama, Mystery & Suspense
Language:
English
Running time:
2:01:13
Partner rating:
R
Released:
Quality:
480 (DVD equivalent)

Cast & Crew

Cast

  1. Josh Hartnett Dwight 'Bucky' Bleichert
  2. Scarlett Johansson Kay Lake
  3. Hilary Swank Madeleine Cathcart Linscott
  4. Aaron Eckhart Lee Blanchard
  5. Rose McGowan
  6. Mia Kirshner Elizabeth 'Betty' Short
  7. Laura Kightlinger
  8. Mike Starr Russ Millard
  9. Fiona Shaw Ramona Linscott
  10. Patrick Fischler Ellis Loew
  11. James Otis Dolph Bleichert
  12. John Kavanagh Emmett Linscott

Directors

  1. Brian De Palma

Producers

  1. Art Linson
  2. Avi Lerner
  3. Moshe Diamant
  4. Rudy Cohen

Writers

  1. Josh Friedman

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The Black Dahlia

ThumbnailPlay video in overlay2:20

Trailer for The Black Dahlia

Director Brian De Palma returns to the helm for the first time since 2002's Femme Fatale with this stylish screen adaptation of James Ellroy's novel detailing one of the most notorious unsolved murders in Hollywood history. Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner) was a struggling actress looking to make a name for herself in 1940s-era Tinseltown. Unfortunately for Elizabeth, it was her grim fate that would ultimately overshadow anything she would accom... Director Brian De Palma returns to the helm for the first time since 2002's Femme Fatale with this stylish screen adaptation of James Ellroy's novel detailing one of the most notorious unsolved murders in Hollywood history. Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner) was a struggling actress looking to make a name for herself in 1940s-era Tinseltown. Unfortunately for Elizabeth, it was her grim fate that would ultimately overshadow anything she would accomplish during her short and tragic career. When police discover Elizabeth's body cut clean in half and with all of her organs missing, ex-pugilist detectives Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) and Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) are the men charged with cracking the case and apprehending the killer. This isn't your average murder case, however, and as Blanchard's marriage to Kay (Scarlett Johansson) begins to suffer due to his obsession with the sensational crime, his partner Bleichert discovers a troubling link between the victim and the mysterious Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank), a prominent socialite and the daughter of one of the town's most connected key players.

Trailer for The Black Dahlia

Reviews by Rotten Tomatoes

Scored 'rotten' by Rotten Tomatoes

32%Tomatometer score: 32% positive reviews from professional critics.

percent positive reviews

  1. Positive review
    Urban Cinefile Critics, Urban Cinefile The Black Dahlia revels in its stylish noir production, even though it gets lost in the maze of its zigzagging plot lines. – Full review External link
  2. Negative review
    Garth Franklin, Dark Horizons An over cooked ham of a film, overstuffed with vampish performances and a narrative far too convoluted for its own good – Full review External link
  3. Negative review
    Ben Walters, Time Out Ellroy's prose crawls into characters' secret hearts and under the reader's skin, but its foetid horrors become kitschy here, the script too streamlined and the lead performances too shallow to... – Full review External link
  4. Positive review
    Adam Smith, Empire Magazine Gorgeously realised, gripping and doused in De Palma's familiar technical wizardry. – Full review External link
  5. Negative review
    David Denby, New Yorker The picture is a kind of fattened goose that's been stuffed with goose-liver pt. It's overrich and fundamentally unsatisfying.
  6. Positive review
    Stella Papamichael, BBC It only works in fits and starts and the grand climax is too Rocky Horror to be true, yet the heady redolence of a bygone era still proves seductive. – Full review External link

Read more reviews on Rotten Tomatoes

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